2011 Mendip Historical car society rally

[brian]

on sunday the 15th may myself and val had the pleasure of being passangers in my friends 1937 Armstrong sidley Tourer in the 17th Mendip rally held every may , it all started very early sunday morning , getting up walking the dog , feeding the cats! and get over to Frome by 0700 fully attired in 30,s clothes etc , we set off for the start point which was just outside of weston super mare , and that in its own right was a journey! we logged our details and then mounted our trustee stead for the day,, and proceded to the start line and at 09.30 we were off! i was map reading with an original 30,s map and the course route , which took us along the somerset levels and then up into the polden hills to our first stage which was cleevedon Manor , where we stopped and had lunch in the grounds! as you may well know me by now we had an authentic 30,s style picnic useing for the first time my original 30,s picnic set along with my portable gramaphone player , had a glass of champers with the picnic and played lots of swing and jazz from the period , doing it in style, (please note there were 133 cars of which 20 are pre- war and we were number 13! the rest being post war etc ) and not everyone dressed up ! of course i did not dress up as i allways am in period ) after a fine luncheon we packed up and started on our second leg of the tour , which took us along the portishead coastal road and along the steep hills of the mendips ! heading for our journeys end which was The City of Wells , and on the cathedral green right in front of the cathedral where the finnishing post was and a Jazz band was playing as we past the post! we then parked in a designated area on the green and had a nice sunday afternoon cream tea! ( so British) we passed the finishing post at 4pm .. during our time on the green the society held its award ceromony and we were as chuffed as fuck to find that we had won not just one cup but Two! one for the best dressed lady and the second being the best car in the show! i would just like to point out that this car has been off the road for over 19 years being faithfully restored by it,s owner and is a real credit to him. His paticular car is the only example left in the world! as all other armstrongs were cab type and this one is an open tourer must have cost a bomb in its day! when i get photos i will post them up as she is a real bute of a car! also one guy took loads of photos and interviewed us and then he introduced himself as a writer /photographer for Classic Car Magazine, should get some photos from the local press as the Mayor presented the cups! When we finaly got back to Frome we had covered a total distance of 160 miles! in an open top car with the winds on sunday we all had windburn but what a day!!!!

[Kenny]

Brian sounds like a craking day out mate! We'll be very interested to see the photos mate and i do love the period, stylish and lavish with a hint of class

Kenny